Polar Expedition in Silent Hunter 4

[TorpX]

Originally Posted by fitzcarraldo

In the Arctic there is a wall of ice in SH4 (a floating pack). Never I tried to navigate under this pack. I don´t know if the North Pole is simulated in the world of SH4.

Best regards.

Fitzcarraldo

Keep in mind, there is no convergence of the meridians. Even with no ice, where could you go? You can sail E to W around the world, but not N to S. Travel along E-W routes, at higher or lower latitudes, will require longer distances and more fuel, than would be the case in RL.

[WH4K]

Today, I went Arctic-exploring at the end of a patrol.

Unfortunately, I picked the worst time of year to do it (November 1944). Solidly in winter by then, I watched the days get shorter and shorter as I got further north.

Now that was *really neat.* By the time I got through the Bering Strait, I was in 24/7 darkness.

SH4 is the first game of any kind I've played which simulates that properly, as far as I know (maybe SH3 does this too). I expect that if I went back north in June, I would see constant daylight.

The constant darkness and terrible weather is probably why I didn't see the icecap, and ran smack into it. Strangely, this did not damage my boat, I just sort of veered off to one side.

For some reason, the polar ice cap does not show up on the navigation map except at specific zoom levels.

[Sledgehammer427]

TorpX has a point.

When SH5 was in its infancy, one of the devs let slip the type of world that is rendered.

its cylindrical.

so you will have to stop when you hit the top because there is nowhere else to go. according to the game

[WH4K]

Not too surprising. I guess they didn't expect the player to be mucking about in polar waters.

Simulating a no-kidding spherical Earth would be nice. Doubt Ubisoft will get around to it anytime soon.

[TorpX]

Originally Posted by WH4K

Not too surprising. I guess they didn't expect the player to be mucking about in polar waters.

Simulating a no-kidding spherical Earth would be nice. Doubt Ubisoft will get around to it anytime soon.

I would have liked it too. The question is not entirely academic; any routes we travel that are E-W and well off the equator, will be significantly distorted (lengthened). For example: Kiel to Scotland/ North Atlantic or the Aluetians to Northern Japan. I like to think, Ubisoft would do better for SH6.

At least one can roam around the pacific in SH4; in SH1 that was impossible.

[WH4K]

Using an essentially "flat" Earth is understandable, and probably vastly simplified development. So I can see why Ubi's done it.

Using a realistic round earth would require a lot of the same techniques that were developed for real-world navigation, so it's not as if Ubisoft would have to reinvent spherical coordinates etc. Today's desktop PC's have a surfeit of processing power, so the only barrier to round-Earth modeling in games is development time.

Now I'm wondering how flight sims handle this? MS Flight Simulator was around for many years, and was generally considered one of the most realistic flight sims available on a PC. I'm sure at some point they had the "flat earth" vs. "round earth" debate.

[Schwieger]

*looks at modders*

[TorpX]

Originally Posted by WH4K

Using an essentially "flat" Earth is understandable, and probably vastly simplified development. So I can see why Ubi's done it.

Using a realistic round earth would require a lot of the same techniques that were developed for real-world navigation, so it's not as if Ubisoft would have to reinvent spherical coordinates etc. Today's desktop PC's have a surfeit of processing power, so the only barrier to round-Earth modeling in games is development time.

That's pretty much my view of it. My TI-85 converts spherical to rectagular coordinates for pete's sake.

If there were problems with implementing a spherical model, they could have compromised and used a flat model for tactical distances.